The planned European legal form Societas Privata Europaea (SPE) is a limited liability company of a closed group of shareholders, and thus is comparable to the German GmbH. At the European-level, the SPE serves as a supplement to the European Limited Liability Company (SE), which proved to be too difficult for small and medium-sized companies for various reasons. The SPE will be introduced on the basis of a European regulation, the content of which has been largely agreed to by the member states. Heribert Hirte, Universität Hamburg; Christoph Teichmann, Universität Würzburg.
